Convicted Woburn Killer in 1987 Westwood Murders Appeals to SJC

BOSTON -- A 69-year-old Woburn man with ties to mobster Whitey Bulger will ask the state's highest court next month to overturn his double murder conviction for the 1987 execution-style slayings of a Westwood couple.

Defense attorney Alan Jay Black, who represents James Rakes, will argue before the state Supreme Judicial Court on April 7 that the trial judge violated his client's rights by allowing the jury to hear about a jailhouse conversation in which Rakes was implicated in the murders.

Black also faulted the judge for allowing the jury to hear Rake's criminal history, as well as temporarily closing the courtroom during jury selection due to a passed tissue.

Prosecutors alleged that James Ridge went to the home with Rakes of Woburn, and his sister, Patricia Rakes,45, after planning to rob John Sweeney, who was staying there. Sweeney had allegedly scammed Ridge into investing up to $30,000 in a phony mission to recover buried treasure in a sunken ship off the Bahamas.

Ridge and James Rakes were convicted of gagging and binding Jay Schlosser, 28, and Heather Buchanan, 25, then shooting them execution-style in the head because they could identify their assailants. James Rakes was convicted in 2004 and given the mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.

Ridge, of South Boston, was convicted on similar charges and was also sentenced to life without parole.

Rakes' sister, pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter and was sentenced to seven to 10 years. Patricia Rakes acted as the decoy to get the couple to open the door to the apartment.

Prosecutors said the three were low-level associates of Bulger's Winter Hill Gang, according to published reports.

They went to the couple's home in 1987 hoping to rob another man who had allegedly cheated Ridge out of $30,000 in a phony mission to recover buried treasure in a sunken ship off the Bahamas.

Patricia Rakes acted as the decoy to get the couple to open the door to the apartment.

Prosecutors said Ridge shot Buchanan and Schlosser after demanding drugs and money, and to keep them from identifying him. Before killing Buchanan, Ridge was alleged to have said, "Ladies first." he then told Schlosser, who had turned 28 the day before, "Happy (expletive) birthday," and pulled the trigger.

Police and prosecutors solved the case by tracking down friends and associates of the victims and the killers over two decades.

Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Tracey Cusick stated in her brief to the SJC that the judge did not make any errors and the convictions should stand.

Cusick explained that Rakes' criminal record was allowed in because there was evidence that before the victims were killed he said he was "not doing anymore time.'' The jury heard that Rakes have been paroled 17 days before the murders.

James and Patricia Rakes are related to Stephen Rakes, who owned a South Boston liquor store that Bulger and longtime associate Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi allegedly muscled in on and later demanded he sell to them.

In 2013, Stephen "Stippo" Rakes was allegedly killed by William Camuti, 69, who poisoned Rakes' iced coffee and then attempted suicide coincidentally while Bulger was on trial on federal court for multiple counts of murder, according to published reports.

Camuti was allegedly heavily in debt to Rakes, reports state.

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